Workplace Deviance Investigations: A Case Study of the Application of Maturity Model to a University Investigation

Abstract

This article presents a case study from Norway that supplements previous research in other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom regarding lack of justice when corporate investigators conduct internal examinations in client organizations. The case is concerned with a university researcher who was investigated after allegations of violating the national working environment act. Investigators applied likelihood of fifty percent rather than the criteria of incident beyond any reasonable doubt. There was no real contradiction offered, and many more deviance from a fair process occurred when compared to the public criminal justice system. The presented maturity model with four stages is applied to illustrate the low level of investigative performance in the case. This research does not in any way claim that the presented case is representative of work by corporate investigators conducting internal examinations in client organizations. Nevertheless, this research is important, as it illustrates the lack of justice that is caused by the absence of regulation of the private investigation industry as performed by law firms, audit firms, consulting firms, and others.